ALBUM REVIEW: BLOODLETTING – RØRY
Three, two, one! RØRY’s second studio album is here, and no amount of emotional armour is going to protect against the choking anguish of BLOODLETTING. A songwriter with empathy and the ability to wear not just their heart, but their entire cardiovascular system on their sleeve is a terrifying prospect. Add on the hit-songwriting experience, propensity for risk-taking, and extremely likeable nature that has enthralled a fanbase hundreds of thousands large across the globe, and you have barely scratched the surface of alternative metal icon RØRY. Despite her debut album, RESTORATION, being a top ten in the UK Charts with its channelling of hope in the face of destructive sadness across ten tracks of redemptive pop-rock, BLOODLETTING ramps things up in every way (apart from maybe the likelihood of getting played on the radio).
[welcome to bloodletting] introduces the album with a psychedelic soundscape evocative of a cyber-horror indoor rollercoaster, as RØRY welcomes you with blunt words of warning and the question that beats throughout the album: “do you want to live or do you want to die?” Now, if the listening party experience that RØRY held across the UK and online is anything to go by, where she describes fans as a spectrum of intense weeping to headbanging, there is a lot of fun to be had with BLOODLETTING, but leaving a puddle of tears in the rollercoaster cart is also all but guaranteed.
If by some psychopathic tendency you’re not awash with emotion after singles DEGRADATION and SWALLOW, a cure for cancer will do it. Don’t let the lowercase letters fool you; this heartbreaking song carries with it the weight of not just RØRY losing her mum, but also guitarist Miles Kent, who was invited to help shape the heavier direction of this album. Although the loss of Miles is prevalent throughout the album, it was his wicked sense of humour and beautiful songwriting that left a lasting impression on RØRY, the latter of which contributed to DEGRADATION, the only track Miles was able to record before he passed away. “And when I sent the demos, which have the lyric, ‘the dying wish of a cancer patient’, he was like, ‘You taking the piss, mate?’ He laughed at all of it, and he was then going in to do DEAD GIRL WALKING, and he was like, ‘Sorry, it might be Dead Boy Walking’.”
The first lyric of MORTAL is actually a reference to the last communication they had, “you can fight until your dying breath,” which RØRY rasps out in her newly acquired screaming skills that scratch soul-deep with their blood-red claws of visceral tonality. “We’re doomed to live,” hints at the proximity of BLOODLETTING’s breakpoint, the moment where RØRY loses it in a progressively psychotic outburst as she screeches, “I am the nicest person alive” in [the death of a people pleaser]. The satirical KIDS THESE DAYS follows, taking the album down an almost punk route with its garish tongue-in-cheek verses that point at the state of the country and judgmental voices of RØRY’s own generation. DEAD GIRL WALKING is the resuscitative moment as the compass turns to optimism, “all I know is I’m alive”. The seamless weaving of screams with cleans is the balance of “fun daily anger” RØRY has been able to bring into her life. While RØRY describes her screaming as level 1, what she lacks in higher-level scream tactics, she more than makes up for with an abundance of raw demons that come out every time she turns on the unclean tap.
GREY kicks in with a gut punch to the face, the lingering first lyric, “why am I still here?” marking the doubts that are constantly bubbling too close to the surface for comfort, with Dan Lancaster’s (BRING ME THE HORIZON, MUSE) production bringing to life the piercing sorrow. And to contrast the earlier a cure for cancer, hometown comes in as an acoustic oasis, depicting RØRY’s bittersweet return home with no mother and an unreachable father. “I know I’ve got nothing here, but it’s still my hometown.” She’s singing for the future RØRYs, the kids that may still be there struggling and the ones that “got out”. Her singing voice is somehow both soft and soaring, the emotional vulnerability combining with RØRY’s newfound acceptance that it’s ok to be a bit angry, generating something beautifully powerful.
STRANGE would’ve been a perfectly fitting place to close this album: it has all the vivacity of a pop ballad with the emotive crunch only found in alt metal spheres, and the culminating line of “oh how strange it is to want to live” perfectly summarises RØRY’s relatively newfound feelings towards life. But the album is brought home with its fourth spoken word track [do you want to live?], this time featuring recordings from RØRY’s fans in the 37 Club. While it veers close to a fondue factory with its sweetness, its place is inarguable, as so much of what RØRY has built and is building is locked in tightly to her community. One that she continues to support, entertain, and inspire with every side hustle and musical career move she makes.
Rating: 9/10
BLOODLETTING is out now via SADCØRE Records.
For more information on RØRY like her official page on Facebook.